Chemical Engineering August 2022 - 16

Emerson
FIGURE 5. Emerson's OCX8800 Combustion Fluegas Transmitter
provides a continuous, accurate measurement of O2 and
combustibles remaining in fluegases to permit a higher level
of optimization
pany. " The burner is designed with
two significant combustion zones to
achieve these emissions levels from
start up to full capacity with minimal
CO emissions. In addition, the burner's
compact flame lengths
solve
many issues ultra-low NOx burner
technologies face in today's market. "
Preparing for CO2 reduction
While it may not yet be feasible to
switch to carbon-free fuels due to the
capital expense of replacing or retrofitting
an existing combustion system
for unknown emissions goals, combustion
experts say there are steps
you can take to figure out where you
currently are and what you need to
do to reach corporate decarbonization
goals and future government
regulations. Fortunately, these same
steps also help optimize the current
combustion process.
" We are having a very 'wild, wild
west' moment regarding CO2 emissions, "
says Dale Smith, global
growth leader, Connected Combustion
Services, with Honeywell
Thermal Solutions (Houston; www.
honeywell.com). " Many companies
are voluntarily making sustainability
part of their corporate goals. We also
know some regulations
are coming
and that California has already
pushed some very aggressive emissions
targets out there.
" What I suggest is taking a deep
breath and collecting data on where
you currently stand, " Smith continues.
" Figure out your baselines: what
are your burners doing, what you
are emitting, how much fuel are you
using, how are you actually perform16
ing?
Once you have your
baselines, you can determine
where you have gaps
and where you can improve
and from there you can create
a roadmap for the future
and whether that requires
investments or not. "
Todd Ellington, director,
Global Product Marketing,
with Honeywell Thermal Solutions,
agrees. " We have
hardware and control devices
that are capable of low
NOx emissions and helping
to improve efficiency, so if
you are already taking advantage
of these low-emission burners
and they are performing well,
adding something like Thermal IQ
or remote monitoring software that
is recording, archiving and analyzing
your system can provide real-time
visibility into the thermal performance
of your combustion and actionable
intelligence. It becomes an enabler
for reliability, safety and emissions
control and provides early warnings
for predictive actions. If you can predict,
you can be more efficient and
effective now and see where you
need to go in the future. That's the
power of data. It optimizes not only
how we use our thermal equipment,
but how we use our money and our
energy and provides a roadmap for
the path we will need to take in the
future " (Figure 4).
Optimizing combustion systems
The bonus of monitoring combustion
to find a path toward the future is that
it also helps processors optimize their
current combustion process, which
aids in achieving that elusive
balance of efficiency, reliability
and emissions control, say
the experts.
" Today we strive to operate
at better efficiency. However,
with different staging techniques
for low-NOx burners
and because today's combustion
tends to run leaner in
excess air, which limits both
NOx and CO2 emissions, but
raises potential for CO emissions
or unsafe fuel-rich conditions,
it's very important to
make sure combustion systems
are running properly maintenance-
and safety-wise, but also to
ensure the proper air-to-fuel ratio, "
explains Emerson's Widmer.
He says in-situ oxygen probes,
such as the zirconium-based Rosemount
6888 In-Situ Oxygen Transmitter
provide a continuous, accurate
measurement of the oxygen
remaining in fluegases coming from
any combustion process (Figure 5).
Accurate measurements of furnace
exhaust excess oxygen are directly
related to and critical for maintaining
proper air-to-fuel ratio, resulting
in reduced energy costs, increased
safety and lower emissions.
Additionally, the OCX8800 Combustion
Fluegas Transmitter provides
a continuous, accurate measurement
of oxygen and combustibles remaining
in fluegases. This close-coupled
extractive analyzer permits a higher
level of optimization. " It's important
to measure and monitor both oxygen
and combustibles and to do so in a
way that allows you to make changes
in the controls so that you have some
wiggle room in the setpoint of the
oxygen, " Widmer says.
This is helpful, he continues, because
most trim controllers are very
good at maintaining the oxygen
level, but not at optimizing it. " Some
days you might have very good fuel
sources or combustion conditions so
you could run oxygen at 1% without
any combustibles or CO emissions
breakthrough, but other days, conditions
might not be as optimal. This
type of monitoring with the ability to
manually make changes allows you
to optimize for the combustion conditions
that day, " says Widmer.
Koch Engineered Solutions
FIGURE 6. OnPoint's EMBER solution uses data from existing
instrumentation and links those data to proprietary calculations
to provide operators with recommendations on how to adjust
their combustion equipment to be more efficient, increase
throughput and reduce emissions
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AUGUST 2022
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Chemical Engineering August 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering August 2022
